Costco joins Netflix in taking a harder line on membership sharing
Costco Corp. plans to take a tougher line on the sharing of membership cards.
The bulk retailer intends to ask customers to show photo identification in addition to a Costco COST, +1.32% membership card when going through the self-checkout process. The Dallas Morning News first reported on the development last week.
A Costco spokesperson emphasized that the company’s policy isn’t changing, as the it always required membership cards at checkout. With the rise of self checkout, however, the company has noticed non-members using cards that don’t belong to them.
“We don’t feel it’s right that non-members receive the same benefits and pricing as our members,” a Costco spokesperson said.
The company indicated on its last earnings call that it was likely to hold off on increasing its membership fees, even as an analyst suggested Costco would appear to have room for a hike.
“Our view right now is that we’ve got enough levers out there to drive business,” Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said on the earnings call, although his view is that Costco would be able to increase fees if it wanted to without meaningfully crimping renewal or signup rates.
Costco offers Gold Star and Business memberships for $60 each annually, as well as an Executive membership that costs $120. That higher tier of membership gives consumers a 2% reward on qualifying purchases from the company, among other benefits.
Costco joins Netflix Inc. NFLX, +0.27% in clamping down on what the companies see as an abuse of membership privileges. The streaming service has moved recently to rein in account-sharing by viewers in different households, requiring either that freeloaders pay for their own accounts or that account holders pay extra to add additional viewers.
Netflix’s initiative seems to be having the desired financial effect, initial third-party data points indicate.